John Muir And The Los Angeles Chapter

Sierra Club Archives

In this the centennial year of the Angeles Chapter, we might recall that no one was more delighted about the formation of the 'Southern California branch' than John Muir. In 1911, Muir was already well known in the Southland and had just taken part in the visits of two ‘lions' in Pasadena: Andrew Carnegie in 1910 and Theodore Roosevelt in 1911. His participation there was a mark of his own recognition as a conservationist and as a scientist. He had already stirred up conservation alliances with influential Southern Californians such as Charles Lummis and Pasadena's forestry leader (and founder of Henninger Flat tree nursery) Theodore P. Lukens.

Muir had first visited Southern California in 1877 and returned numerous times, until his death in Los Angeles in 1914. In those latter years, he enjoyed the friendship of fellow naturalist John Burroughs, who frequently came to California from his New York home for the winters. The biographer of Burroughs, Clara Barrus, gives us this vignette of the two friends, in the same year - 1911 - that the Angeles Chapter was formed. These were the reactions of the two when Theodore Roosevelt praised them both in his Pasadena lecture:

'Mr. Muir, who had been sitting straight as an arrow, seemed to sit straighter still, while his head seemed to life higher and higher as the tribute progressed, and a look of unfeigned joy shone on his face; while the head of Mr. Burroughs drooped lower and lower, and, one know, however much he wished he could hide it completely, that there were happy tears in his eyes.' Perhaps Muir's joy was amplified by knowing his beloved Sierra Club was taking a firm hold that year in the Southland.

The new branch, now called the Angeles Chapter, grew quickly. Founding member Philip Bernays recorded in an oral history that he went to Pasadena to call on 'Muir's friend, Mr. Vroman' at his bookstore. (This was Adam Clark Vroman, whose bookstore is still flourishing in Pasadena.) Vroman presented the new chapter with a set of John Muir volumes to be sent to Martinez for autographing. The set is prized today in Chapter archives.

Soon the Southern Californians had trips scheduled every weekend into the San Gabriel Mountains. In 1913, they raised in Big Santa Anita Canyon a rustic haven for the club known as Muir Lodge. The lodge, built by volunteer labor, was enjoyed for many years until the 1938 floods swept it away. Hikers took the streetcar line in those days, then followed an eight mile trail from the end of the line. Muir was delighted with the lodge, approved the name, and sent $50 for the project.

In June 1914, just before his final illness, Muir appeared unexpectedly at a Sierra Club campfire in Griffith Park. He left behind some vivid last memories of the naturalist and traveler, sitting late into the mild spring night, talking of trees in the distant South American forests he had just seen.

Muir's name lingers in Southern California. Pasadena has its John Muir High School and Santa Monica its John Muir Elementary School. A branch of the Los Angeles Public Library bears Muir's name; at its opening ceremonies in 1930, Samuel Merrill of the Sierra Club, who had known Muir, told personal recollections of his friend. The streamline-moderne buildings of Hollywood High School (from the 1930s) have a frieze with some standard heroes of Western civilization: Galileo, Raphael, Shakespeare. . . and John Muir.

Muir would have preferred to have his legacy not in the cities but the mountains. Two structures there have been lost, but a peak remains. Muir Lodge in Big Santa Anita Canyon is long gone. Also gone is the little outdoor chapel at Switzer's Camp, where an art glass window once commemorated Muir and other California mountaineers. But Muir Peak, a rounded summit just southwest of Mt. Wilson, remains. Its name was officially confirmed in the year of the Sierra Club's centennial, 1992. Now the Angeles Chapter reaches its own centennial, a century of carrying forth the spirit of John Muir.